Objectification Of Nature Research Articles

Disney’s Wagner Aesthetic: Music Drama in Pursuit of the Total Artwork

Aside from Walt Disney’s reputation for renegade avant-gardism, ‘sentimental modernism’ and subliterary Americana, the German composer Richard Wagner’s pursuit of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork) provides a coherent framework for interpreting the ‘music drama’ of the Disney studio’s Depression-era shorts of the 1930s and its feature films of the Golden Age (1937–1942). In citing Wagner and Adorno’s critique of him, the author argues that Disney follows Wagner in three key respects: (1) in his disavowal of the ‘work’ of art and corresponding objectification of Nature; (2) his espousal of technology and its ‘innovation’ as a means of attaining artistic perfection; and (3) his striving for a synaesthesia, or aesthetic unity of the senses, which would ultimately prove unsustainable given the commercial constraints of capitalist modernity.

Ekowisata dan Wisata Religius sebagai Relasi antara Manusia, Alam dan Tuhan

The development of the world of tourism so rapidly from year to year. This implies an inevitable new tourist attraction. This development has its traces from the 20th century as a result of the decline of human existence, the objectification of nature and the breaking of the chain of sacredness with God through tradition. The second decade of the 21st century shows that this disconnection and decadence can be re-woven through tourism. This research will explore the statement: what kind of tourism model can then intertwine humans' disconnection from themselves, nature and God? The result is that in the ecotourism and religious tourism models there is a possibility of a harmonious mutualism symbiosis. Specifically in this study, the authors found that ecotourism (Trigonasantri Garden) and religious tourism objects (Petilasan Linggabuana) have a fundamental component—traditionally—relationship between humans, nature and God.

Tasks of Philosophy in the Present Age

This is a translation of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s recently discovered 1952 Berlin speech. The speech includes several themes that reappear in Truth and Method, as well as in Gadamer’s later writings such as Reason in the Age of Science. For example, Gadamer criticizes positivism, modern philosophy’s orientation toward positivism, and Enlightenment narratives of progress, while presenting his view of philosophy’s tasks in an age of crisis. In addition, he discusses structural power, instrumental reason, the objectification of nature and human beings, the reduction of both to mere means, and the colonization of scientific-technological ways of knowing and being—all of which continue to impact our social and political lives together and threaten the very existence of every living being. This speech is essential reading for Gadamer scholars interested in the social, political, and ethical dimensions of his thought and for those interested in bringing Gadamer into conversation with critical theory.

Antiquarians between Nature and Culture

From the second half of the 16th century to the beginning of the 18th century, the foundations of modern science were laid through the wide-ranging changes in comprehension of both nature and European societies, today labeled as “scientific revolution”. By the end of this period in the history of European science, the interpretation of universe did not necessarily include the divine intervention and, along with the objectification of nature, the past was objectified as well.
 The approaches articulated during the scientific revolution were applied to the investigation into the human past in the works of the antiquarians. The new ways of observation, description, and collection of antiquities were generated as a part of the wider interests in natural history. On the other hand, it may be argued that the antiquarians’ practice joined together the approaches we would today judge as opposed: the ones derived from social theory , as well as the ones based upon natural sciences. In their studies of the past, the antiquarians equally used written sources as well as “naturalistic” methods, such as careful observation, establishment of classifications, or experimental design.
 Taking into account the significant contribution of antiquarians to the establishment of disciplinary foundations of archaeology, the paper aims to point to some new possibilities of approaching the study of the past, primarily beyond the established dichotomy of artifacts/ecofacts, and to offer the ways of bridging the present divisions inside the discipline.

Unbecoming British: how Revolutionary America became a postcolonial nation

INTRODUCTION 1. The Meaning of Objects: Post-Colonial Americans in a Trans-Atlantic World of Goods 2. Revolutionary Replay: American and British Encounters in Canton, China 3. Status in Space: On the Margins of the World Map 4. Seeds of Discontent: The Objectification of Nature 5. 'To pursue the Stream to its fountain': Importing Intellects in the Trans-Atlantic World CONCLUSION

Starożytne źródła antropocentryzmu

Anthropocentrism seems to be a key notion related to the man-nature relation. Probably he is also the most controversial one in environmental ethics. The anthropocentric attitude is sometimes meant to be the main cause of the ecological crisis. One can distinguish at least several stages of the process, which led to this crisis, namely: stage of Magic and Myth, Ancient Times, Middle Ages, and Modern Times. The aim of this article is to show the process of development of an anthropocentric thought in Ancient European culture. Supposedly the critical phase for this process is the so-called Neolithic Revolution. Changes brought by this deeply influenced life of man. Not only affected the transformation of his world-view but also had an impact on the modification of society itself. Mentioned changes led among other things to the rejection of magic and mythical world-view, in which the Universe was perceived as a harmonious and friendly place to live in. A doubt appeared instead, what the place of man in the world really is. These questions reflected in philosophical views of that time. To sum up, the originated by Ancient Greek philosophers outlook on nature, in which nature was recognized as a living organism and a man as an immanent part of it, had been gradually dropped out. It appeared that man falls outside the mechanical laws of nature because he is able to understand them and use this knowledge for his own goals (Democritus), man’s soul makes him transcend nature and dominate it (Socrates), man’s existence is purposeful, he is superior to other material beings as a crown of nature and the most complex and perfect being (Aristotle). This process led to a recognition of the objective existence of the world, which in fact is independent of human cognition. Ultimately, this resulted in the objectification of nature as an object of man’s cognition and research. Nature was then gradually put in opposition to man – the subject of cognition.

Technologies of the picturesque: British art, poetry, and instruments, 1750-1830

Technologies of the Picturesque is an original study of how art and technology mutually align their representations of nature in order to transform land into intelligible landscapes. Ron Broglio explores three technologies in eighteenth-century Britain whose influence on the picturesque aesthetic has been overlooked: cartography, meteorology, and animal breeding. He traces how these scientific fields influence the works of Wordsworth, Gilpin, Constable, Gainsborough and other key figures of the period. Broglio argues that technology and interior experience of the poetic subject overlap in their means and methods of removing the viewer from nature, while presenting the land as a comprehensible object.Each chapter pairs archival research with a phenomenological critique of how representation abstracts from the lived engagement with the land. With considerable learning and insight, Broglio reveals how artists are both complicit with such objectification of nature, and at other moments work toward a more vivid connection to the environment.

“Man” and His Technological Doubles

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) In contemporary society one can observe an apparent collapse of opposition between technology on one hand and nature on other, an opposition which has been constitutive for modern understanding of both nature and technology. It is claimed that this collapse, epitomized in neologism biotechnology and in rise of concept of so-called self-organizing systems, suggests that we have entered a radically new stage of being, not only technologically, but also with respect to status of human. Specifically, it is argued that as a consequence of this radically changed conception of relation between natural and artificial, figure of human, crux as it were of modern opposition between physis and techne, is dispensed with, possibly even overcome, in effect leading us towards a posthuman form of existence.1 This essay will examine latter claim in light of way nature, and human body in particular, has been understood conceptually and historically in technological terms, particularly with reference to technological artefacts. Against view presented above I will argue that transition taking place from modern-humanist to contemporary posthuman paradigm is not so much a rupture bringing about replacement of an old paradigm with a radically different new one but a modified perpetuation of old that involves an intensification of a kind of thinking that is both anthropomorphic and anthropocentric. The investigation is structured as follows: first, I briefly summarize main features of what I take to be modern paradigm of technology and shed some light on its underlying anthropologism. Particular attention will be devoted to modern paradigm's conceptual treatment of human body, and to archetypical artefacts which in a metaphorical way render body's functioning. Secondly, I will describe what I will term hyper-modern stage of technological development, its connection to ideology of self-organizing system and more broadly to notion of post-human. Again, particular attention will be paid to role human body plays in conceptual formation of a technological post-human paradigm and to body's relation to artefacts on pattern of which it is modelled. Thirdly, drawing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty's critique of cybernetic project, I will show how far this hypermodern paradigm, and idea of posthuman more generally, gives further impetus to anthropomorphic and anthropocentric tendencies inherent in classic modern paradigm of technology in spite of radical changes it seemingly brings with it. Drawing on analysis from all three groups of considerations, I will finish with some general comments about reciprocal constitution of notions of man and technology, arguing that technology always already functions quasi-transcendentally in constitution of figure of man, thus foreclosing possibility of any straightforward technological move towards posthuman. The Modern Humanist Understanding of Technology: The Body as Clock Roughly speaking, modern conception of technology-leaving aside important constitutive role of its Ancient and Medieval precursors-takes shape during sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The very idea of technical is based on three interrelated processes: firstly, exteriorization or objectification of nature, secondly, its mechanization, and thirdly, its quantification. All three processes, which are given paradigmatic philosophical form in work of Descartes, are a result of a constitutive gap opening up between a disembodied, rational subject on one hand and a rationalized, objective material world on other. Already inherent in double signification of Latin ratio, which tellingly combines aspects of both calculation and rationality as Cassirer reminds us,2 this rationalistic conceptual constellation can be regarded as product of a twofold process of purification: rupture between subject and world is what underlies both the transparency of an object with no secret recesses, and the transparency of a subject which is nothing but what it thinks it is. …

The changing ‘nature’ of Tiwanaku religion and the rise of an Andean state

The means by which past complex societies thrived at high altitudes remain puzzling. In this paper I suggest that religious ideology and ritual practice shaped the cultural processes that fostered Tiwanaku state rise in the south-central Andean highlands. Physical changes in the monumental core of the state's principal centre are particularly revealing. Material transformations in monumental axiality, spatiality, materiality and iconography were critical elements in a changing religion that sought to integrate the symbolism of prominent generative forces such as mountains, vital elements such as water and recurring celestial cycles. After ad 500, Tiwanaku's innovative religion meshed imposing natural features with timeless solar cycles. This embodiment and objectification of nature was increasingly critical for a polity that thrived precariously on an effective coordination of fishing, herding and new technologies of high-altitude farming. The symbolic appropriation of the natural world and its immanent spiritual forces was constitutive of Tiwanaku's political integration of diverse societies and productive landscapes.

Gadamer and the Otherness of Nature: Elements for an Environmental Education

In this work I search for elements that contribute to the development of the ethical dimension of environmental education. I start with the existence of what C.A. Bowers calls “areas of silence” in the curriculum in both schools and universities. The reason for this silence, I argue, is to be found in the Cartesian conceptual structures of curricula. I suggest that the works of Bacon, Galileo and Descartes provoke a twofold process that I have termed the forgetting of tradition and objectification of nature. As a corrective to this process, I explore the possibilities that the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer opens for rehabilitation of tradition and de-objectification of nature. I work with the concept of the “dignity of things” present in Greek dialectics: that nature is not simply a projection of mind (as the neo-Kantians claim), but something that thought suffers. In my conclusions I argue that for nature to be reinserted into almost all areas of knowledge it is necessary that we respect “the otherness of nature.”

The Firefly and the Trout: Recent Shifts Regarding the Relationship Between People and other Animals in Japanese Culture

ABSTRACTScholars of Japan like to point out that the Japanese are interested in tamed (miniature trees, ikebana, gardens) as opposed to wild nature, and that for the Japanese, culture and nature are not mutually exclusive concepts. Moreover, there hardly seems to be any direct relationship between the Japanese sensitivity to nature and Japanese environmental behaviour. Bearing these general assumptions in mind, this paper analyzes the changes in the relationship between the Japanese and animals through two recent movements in Japan: firefly protection and fly fishing.This study is based on interviews and participant observation among several firefly protection groups in the Kansai area from 1989 to 1997, among fly-fishing fishermen, and in fishing cooperatives of Gifu prefecture since 1997. In order to ascertain tendencies regarding new shifts in attitudes toward animals, specific observations regarding each of these issues will be disregarded so as to deal only with the commonalities. The similarities between the movements are indeed striking. Traditionally caught by the thousands, and released in houses and gardens for people's enjoyment, fireflies play a role in linking humans with what the Japanese call “close nature.” The firefly image is also very conspicuous in poetry and art. But the firefly population declined in the 1950s, and they are now being protected through drastic legal and social policies, partly influenced by Western environmentalism. The issue of firefly protection is entangled in a criss-cross of interests involving environmental concerns, urban renewal policies and the revival of depopulated rural areas, for which the firefly has become a widely used symbol. At the same time, the movement for firefly protection is highly critical of the traditional ways of dealing with fireflies. Similarly, despite the existence of a traditional Japanese method of “fly-fishing” (tenkara), the recent fly fishing boom seems to be the result of environmental trends such as the “outdoor boom,” and the “catch and release” method.The introduction of a new fishing technique and the emergence of a consciousness and a commitment to protect fauna and flora disrupted the complex traditional relationship between humans and certain species of animals in both cases. And in both cases, the new approach to nature provoked a strong “cultural resistance” to the loss of the specific Japanese way of dealing with animals. Like “woodpigeon hunting” in southern France, or the whaling issue in other cultural areas, these phenomena appear to be symptomatic of the opposition between tradition(al culture) and environmental concerns. Indeed, the objectification of nature that underscores environmental concern is only possible through a distancing from nature, in which people differentiate and disassociate themselves from other animals… a very “un-Japanese” idea.

The Fourth Congress of Muslim Librarians and Information Scientists

This conference was a rare occasion for Muslim scientists and scholarsto assemble and discuss the challenges facing the ummah. Inauguratedby Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, the president of Pakistan, the conferenceconsisted of fifty papers presented in eight inaugural and plenary sessions.The issues discussed were of both theoretical and practical import.The theoretical papers focused on such questions as the nature and significanceof science, the concept of Islamic science, and Islamic epistemology.According to Ziauddin Sardar, who gave the public lecture "IslamicScience: The Way Ahead," science is a highly complex and multilayeredactivity, for no single and simple description of science can reveal its truenature; no romantic ideal can describe its real character; no sweepinggeneralization can uncover its authentic dimensions. In particular,both the extreme positions of scientific fundamentalism andfundamentalist relativism are untenable.He stated that science has been under the influence of the dominantwestern paradigm and that the selection of research priorities is of fundamentalimportance in scientific research, for "often it is the source of fundingthat defines what problem is to be investigated.'' Some 80 percent ofAmerican research is funded by the "military-industrial complex" and isgeared to producing military and industrial equipment.As modem science is based on western values and the priority given toscientific investigation is determined by western requirements, sciencemust be indigenized. Muslim countries have a valuable and untapped reservoirof knowledge and experience. so such an indigenization would be likea rediscovery. But this process, Sardar maintains, "must begin by a rejectionof both the axioms about nature, universe, time, and humanity as wella5 the goals and direction of western science and the methodology whichhac; made meaningless reductionism, objectification of nature, and tortureof animals its basic approach." By Islamic science he means a scientificactivity pursued within the framework of a set of fundamental Islamic concepts.Sardar supports the concepts, identified by Muslim scientists at theStockholm Seminar (1981), that should shape the science policies ofMuslim societies: tawhid (unity), khilafah (trusteeship), 'ibadah (worship) ...

Science in the Islamic Polity in the Twenty-First Century

This conference was a rare occasion for Muslim scientists and scholarsto assemble and discuss the challenges facing the ummah. Inauguratedby Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, the president of Pakistan, the conferenceconsisted of fifty papers presented in eight inaugural and plenary sessions.The issues discussed were of both theoretical and practical import.The theoretical papers focused on such questions as the nature and significanceof science, the concept of Islamic science, and Islamic epistemology.According to Ziauddin Sardar, who gave the public lecture "IslamicScience: The Way Ahead," science is a highly complex and multilayeredactivity, forno single and simple description of science can reveal its truenature; no romantic ideal can describe its real character; no sweepinggeneralization can uncover its authentic dimensions. In particular,both the extreme positions of scientific fundamentalism andfundamentalist relativism are untenable.He stated that science has been under the influence of the dominantwestern paradigm and that the selection of research priorities is of fundamentalimportance in scientific research, for "often it is the source of fundingthat defines what problem is to be investigated.'' Some 80 percent ofAmerican research is funded by the "military-industrial complex" and isgeared to producing military and industrial equipment.As modem science is based on western values and the priority given toscientific investigation is determined by western requirements, sciencemust be indigenized. Muslim countries have a valuable and untapped reservoirof knowledge and experience. so such an indigenization would be likea rediscovery. But this process, Sardar maintains, "must begin by a rejectionof both the axioms about nature, universe, time, and humanity as wella5 the goals and direction of western science and the methodology whichhac; made meaningless reductionism, objectification of nature, and tortureof animals its basic approach." By Islamic science he means a scientificactivity pursued within the framework of a set of fundamental Islamic concepts.Sardar supports the concepts, identified by Muslim scientists at theStockholm Seminar (1981), that should shape the science policies ofMuslim societies: tawhid (unity), khiliifah (trusteeship), 'ihiidah (worship), ...